Living well in the urban village

Moving the Chook Dome – a follow up

They’ve now been on their new bed for about a week, and in that time they’ve eaten, dug up and pretty much cleared out all the vegetation. Linda left us a comment in the previous post, suggesting that we keep the supply of organic material up in the coming weeks, to continue improving the soil quality for the next round of planting. So today we weeded (something we rarely ever do) and the chickens feasted! I took yet another video…

While I was outside, I finally snapped a photo of the red dragonfly that frequents our garden – it’s much larger than the damselflies…

The celery is flowering prolifically, and today there was a new visitor that I’d never seen before. Does anyone know what this flying beetle is? Edit: Mystery solved, it’s a Spotted Flower Chafer (Neorrhina punctatum). Thanks Moo!

Claire, Deb, maybe we’ll get lucky, and there will be an entomologist somewhere who reads the blog and will let us know! ;-)

B, I only recently learnt (a few days ago!) from a David Attenborough doco that damselflies hold their wings in when they perch, and dragonflies always have them out. The dragonfly is much much bigger than the damselfly as well. There was the most gorgeous butterfly in the yard today, but it just wouldn’t stay still to pose for a pic (and I have the reflexes of an old woman. ;-)).

A, the girls aren’t roaming free, they’re inside the chook dome, although I doubt the chicken wire would offer much defence against a giant wolfhound!

I believe the dragonfly could be Orthetrum villosovittatum (Fiery Skimmer Dragonfly).

The beetle looks like a type of harlequin bug or a cucumber beetle. The spotted variety are very similar but the cucumber beetle is a bit longer.

We’ve just bought a Church in country NSW on an acre & are selling our big house in suburbia to go live there! I can’t wait to have Chooks & maybe ducks & be able to grow my own produce… “Dreams do come true” !

I might even have a blog about it eventually so others can follow our dream too…..

Thanks for a great blog, I love reading all your interesting posts.

Would love to know what you call the dipping bread with sesame seeds that is in the photo at the top of your blog? I’d love to make some…. as I make my own hommos…can you please share the recipe?

Nellie, congratulations! That’s very exciting news – I hope you do write a blog so we can all follow your adventures! Thanks for the tip about the beetles, I’m not sure it’s a cucumber beetle, as it only seems to feed on the celery flowers. It’s really very big too – maybe 2cm long?

Your tiny little animal pics are really brilliant Celia…, I’ve not seen that type of dragonfly before, there must be something good going on in that garden of yours to bring out the cool dudes of the insect world huh ;)

Between the ravenous eagles that nest on the river just below or property and a free-roaming wolf-hybrid of the neighbors, our chickens cannot free range but we do have a very large run built onto their barn and a 15′-diameter “playpen” that we move around the yard for them. Your girls look delighted with life! :D

Anna, thanks, but it really is a case of pointing the autofocus camera at the insect and clicking away until one shot works! :) Some very cool bugs indeed at our place at the moment!

Barbara, our girls don’t roam free – apart from needing to keep them safe (hence the high roost), they’d also completely destroy our garden if they were out and about. Having said that, they have heaps of room to wander around in the dome, a swing to play on, and a new bed to spuddle through every few weeks or so! Thanks for dropping by! :)

Jo, clever Brian!! That’s Francesca at the back, and she is definitely darker and smaller and more adventurous than the other chickens. I’ve written about her before. She’s always the one who’ll try a new food first, or spot the caterpillar in amongst the greenery. She’s definitely still an ISA brown, so same red/white leghorn cross as the others, but we’re pretty sure she came from a different clutch.